, 1887-12-16
PROCESS OF CANE PLANTING.
Methods Pursued on a Louisiana PIanta.
tion-Work In the ubbl Fields.

Methods Pursued on a Louisiana Planta-
homework in the stubblo Fields.
Let us follow in their scuuence the
processes of planting. First is the un-
covering with plows of the burrows in
which the seed zane has been buried
since last fall, the pulling it out Of the
ground with great iron hooks attached to
poles, and the loading it into carts. In
the hooking up" gang l observed two
white men working with the negroes.
They are Spaniards from the Terre aux
Bueufs country, the other side of the
swNmps. There arc two others who are
neither whites nor negroes. They have
n brown complexion, high check bones,
regular features and straight black hair.
These are "Manilla mon"-natives of the
Philippine Islands. The c~uriously mixed
population of lower Louisiana includes
1000 or 5000 of them.
Big, stout carts, with broad tired
wheels, haul the rcsurrccted canes to the
field prepared for planting. . Here q gang
Of ono called choppers take up the
canes by armfuls and drop them in heaps
Mt intervals beside the burrows. They are
placed in the burrows by other women
called %''planters." Another gang passes
along the burrows and chops up the canes
with rude Ratchet like knives. The OBJ
Jcct of this is to give tho weak eyes n
chance to draw strength from tho stock
which would otherwise be absorbed by
those which have already n good start.
About six tons of cane go to the planting
of an aero. One acre of seed cane will
plant three acres, and as the planting
must be done every third year, one-ninth
of thcc crop average of plantation must
but be given up TO seed cane. When the
seed cane is cut in tho fall the stalks arc
laid between the rows of stubblc and
covered with Il plow run on each side.
After the N arc laid and cut, they
arc covered with plows or with u ma
chine called n rotary hoe, and the ground
Is then rolled TO press the dirt close to the
sprouting eyes, The first crop is called
plant cane. Next year tho canc sprouts
from the gtubble. and is called first
ratoons. The second year it sprouts
again. and is called second ratoons. The
third year the stuhblo is plowed up and
the ground sowed with field peas, which
recupcrates the land, as clover does
northern farms. The fourth year it is
again put i'll plant cane. A good yield
to The acre is 20 o n of plant cane, 20
of the first ratoons, and 10 of second
ratoons. On the upper Uoast, above
Now Orleans, it is customary to let tho
stubblc ratoon but once. In Cuba it often
ratoon1 six successive years, but the cane
becomes constantly moro woody and
poorer in saccharinc matter.
In tho stubble fields the first spring,
work consists in barring off, =" OF NOV
ing the dirt away from the roots of the
cane with plows and hoes, to permit the
light and air to hasten the terminating of
the ratoons. By the middle of April
there should be n good ''stand' of the
young sprouts. Then the dirt is worked
back toward the rows, and there is COLI
slant cultivation with the plow till after
the 1st of July, when the crop is ''laid
by" No more work is done on it till the
cutting begins in September. Now tho
cane is so high that n man driving n mule
is lost to sight between the rows. Soon
it will be tall enough to swallow up n
man on horseback. The rows are usual
ly seven feet apart and always run paral-
lei with the ditchcs-that is, from the
river or bayou toward the swamp. July
and August was formerly the time for
cutting wood in the swamps to run the
sugar mill during the grinding season,
but now most plantations burn coal. The
crop Being "madc," the planter feels
that Inc can relax his vigilance, and if he
tho means, he goes off TO the north
with his family 10 escape the two hottest
months of the year in Louisiana and
build up his health in n less %encrvating
climate V. Smalley in The Century.